Bert posted something, so I'll post something about Imus.

The quote in question:

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.

It seems the "nappy-headed" is the offensive adjective in question, otherwise McGuirk would be on the chopping block with Imus. Wow. <sarcasm>Glad to see misogyny still takes a back seat to racism, still!</sarcasm>

Hate speech should be protected from government censorship and punishment. Obviously, Imus was employed by a corporation, so that's not a relevant point here.

What really bugs me is this:

He issued repeated apologies as protests intensified. But it wasn't enough as everyone from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama to Oprah Winfrey joined the criticism.

What the heck? Imus, as far as I've read, has been very apologetic about this whole incident, so why does everybody insist on continuing to demand an apology? Imus has apologized personally to the Rutgers team, which took the brunt of the barb.

Obviously there's no excuse for saying a comment like that, but this situation has just snowballed out of control - I don't think Imus deserves the level of punishment he's been taking from everybody and their momma.

Imus is an old guy. I mean, heck, even my parents, who are pretty young, are slightly racist. They don't harbor any ill will towards anybody ... they were just raised differently. When I met Europeans (Germans especially) in high school, the way they talked about other races would seem incredibly offensive to us, but it was pretty normal to them. Am I making excuses for them? Potentially.

Imus was a shock jock. For a long time. He's straddled that line between offensive and crudely humorous often. He crossed the line here, according to public opinion. But is that deserving of all this judgment being passed on him?

Have you never said something that you immediately regretted? Ever told a joke that you knew immediately afterwards was wrong?

Quit passing judgment on Imus. And for every person I read in the press who continues to trash Imus or demand an apology from him ... glad to see you've done nothing in your life that's worth passing judgment on.